Life’s A Beach

So many worthwhile games to discuss, so little time.


Pictured: Not an example of what I just referred to

Sorry (not sorry) to all of you Death Stranding fans/Kojima stans who are at the ready to cream your pants at the mere mention of new info on the upcoming sequel to the…err, “experimental” experience that was the first title, but I believe any positive reinforcement of the notion involving incentivizing a misguided fanbase is unworthy of serious consideration. Though there is apparently going to be new info on the sequel at SXSW 2025 on March 9th, with Kojima heading up what is likely to be a reveal detailing a ton of new info to keep his insane fanbase frothing at the mouth.


In-between their sessions of jerking themselves off
while enjoying their Amazon employee delivery simulator

Death Stranding was one of the weird titles that came out during my “mini-retirement” of sorts, so I never sat down and wrote out some thoughts on what kind of grandiose absurdity I believed the whole affair to truly be. I think there was an intensely interesting conversation to be had about the nature of DS in my opinion, though most invested into the idea of the quality relating to said title would likely be described as not enthused with my deconstruction of the whole experience down to it’s essential parts. I’ve always wanted to go back and write a much lengthier article involving my thoughts about the title, though that would mean me sitting down and actually wanting to play it again, which is unlikely to ever happen. After obtaining the platinum, I never really wanted to return to the scene of the crime, though for the notion of the article alone it may be worth the theoretical toleration of Death Stranding once more. I will leave you with the seed of the idea for my deconstructionism of DS, and that it wasn’t really a game per se, but more of a virtual experience.

Within that perspective, it does prompt the interesting idea of what defines a game these days, and how much the medium has grown in the past few decades, so at least within that respect, I believe it to be a fitting pretense that the man responsible for being the one to prompt me to consider just what exactly a game can be with the release of Metal Gear Solid, does so again with Death Stranding, but for completely antithetical reasons.

~Pashford